Customer Reviews

Red Dwarf IV - Byte Two: Dimension Jump [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Three episodes of the hilarious sci-fi series. In 'Dimension Jump' Rimmer finds out that a tiny decision can alter the course of your life. I don't know what some people have got against 'Meltdown'. It's one of the high points of Series 4, a kind of 'Red Dwarf meets Spitting Image' in which the Dwarf crew find a planet inhabited by wax-droids, sort of a colossal futuristic waxworks museum. But the wax-droids have broken their programming and the heroes (who include Einstein, Queen Victoria and Stan Laurel) are under threat from the villains (who include Rasputin, Caligula and Hitler and his cronies). The Dwarf team even come across giant wax-droids of the creatures out of 'Gappa' (a Japanese monster movie). In 'White Hole' the team find a way of restoring Holly's IQ, but things don't go as planned. Though this episode all too often degenerates into one special-effect after another, it's still great fun.

For those of you who don't know, Red Dwarf is a British comedy/science fiction series that focuses on Dave Lister, the only human survivor of a reactor meltdown on the deep space mining ship, Red Dwarf. Revived by Holly, the ship's computer, after many years in deep sleep, Dave is joined by a hologrammatic reconstruction of his dead bunkmate, Arnold Rimmer, the mechanoid, Kryten, and a humanoid creature who evolved from his cat. Think the Odd Couple meets James Brown, but with killer British wit.

Although I would recommend starting from the beginning, this is probably the best single tape collection of the bunch, with three terrific episodes.

"White Hole" -- cleverly messes with our notions of time and intelligence, while letting Lister play pool with planets. A great episode for understanding the particular quirks of each of the characters.

"Dimension Jump" -- lets Chris Barrie, who plays the repressed and smarmy Rimmer, get out of his usual character and play Rimmer as a dashing know-it-all and lovable hero, as well as the usual Rimmer, who resents his perfected, other self. Another great riff on time.

"Meltdown" -- oddly, when the British Red Dwarf magazine had its readers rate all the episodes in the first 5 series, this was the lowest rated. But Americans seem to love it, and with good reason. It is one of the best RD episodes ever, with great lines (including Rimmer's hilarious account of his best ever game of Risk), and the surreal battle between the good wax droids (Einstein, Pythagoras, Mother Teresa, Elvis, etc.) and the evil ones (Caligula, Rasputin, etc.). Worth buying the tape for the Winnie the Pooh execution alone.

Seires 4 of RD is good stuff and the three episodes in this tape certainly deliver. 'White Hole' is certainly thought provoking in many ways. God does not play with dice, but perhaps he plays pool. So I guess the implication is that the big bang was one giant pool game. And that means that Lister is God. Makes you want to be an atheist, right?

What would happen if we ran into our doppelgaenger? 'Dimension Jump' presents us with an Arnold Rimmer who is popular, witty, talented, and gets propositioned by both men and women. Smoke me a kipper! Our Rimmer hates the other Rimmer, who is everything that loathsome piece of smeg isn't. Maybe our lives are changed by one event. I don't know if I want to see another me, though.

Finally, we see Arnie's Army, which has nothing to do with golfers, in 'Meltdown.' Imagine Madame Tusseaud's creations running amok. Imagine commanding a military force which includes the likes of Sergeant Elvis Presley (which was his actual rank while in the Army-nice piece of historical accuracy), Lietenant Colonel Mother Theresa, Marilyn Monroe, Einstein, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Queen Victoria, the Pope, President Lincoln, Noel Coward, Sartre, Pythagoras, St. Francis of Assisi, and Stan Laurel against Hitler, Caligula, Boston Strangler, and all the evil dictators and despots of the world. No Dirty Dozen here. Rimmer comes off as a cross between Patton and Lou Gosset (remember the lines about steers and...?). Rimmer insults Saint Francis with them. Funny, even if Winnie the Pooh was shot by a firing squad (although we don't actually witness that). Also thought provoking, especially the consequences of a peace as created by Arnold Rimmer-no peace with honor here and indeed the tone of this episode is very much anti-war. War is not the sanitary game of Risk that Rimmer makes it out to be and peace by all means possible is not nesesarily a good thing. Almost like that last scene in the last Blackadder episode. Only the BBC could pull that off!

These epiodes are indeed fun, fun, fun, as the RD theme song states, but be prepared to think about your fun as well. No American TV show could come close with combining comedy, satire, and biting social commentary in one tidy episode. Too bad the later series (7 & 8) couldn't match the intense humor and social commentary here. Who says TV is a bad thing?

Every Red Dwarf episode is just fantastic but they out did themselves in Meltdown. I don't know how they fit so much humour into one half hour. It's a episode of pure enjoyment

This has two of my absolute favorite Red Dwarf episodes on it: "Dimension Jump" and "Meltdown". They are so funny that I can watch them over and over again without ever getting tired of them. The other episode is "White Hole", which is funny, but not as good as the other two.
"White Hole" - Holly shuts herself down and Dwarfers have to figure out a way to keep from drifting into a white hole. They decide on a rather bizarre game of pool to solve the problem. Great storyline, but not punctuated with the usual number of laughs.
"Dimension Jump" - The first appearance of Ace Rimmer. This is a fan favorite episode, and its easy to understand why. Chris Barrie is outstanding in his dual-role.
"Meltdown" - Rimmer lives his dream of becoming a general on the Waxworld, where he leads a band of pacifists, intellectuals and religious leaders into battle against the most hated people of history. This episode has the best storyline of all the episodes, and includes the famous execution of Winnie the Pooh. The best line is when Lister asks Rimmer why he has a nun practicing hand to hand combat, to which Rimmer replies "That's no nun....that's Leiutenant Colonel Mother Theresa!" Gets me every time.
Buy this tape. I guarantee you'll love it.

Dimension Jump is awesome. For those of you who have seen earlier episodes of "Red Dwarf" you will understand when you see this why I think it is funny. In this episode, the group crashes the ship in the middle of a storm. Along comes a heroic stranger from another dimension to help everyone. Except that this stranger isn't that strange. He is Rimmer, except that he is the exact opposite of the Rimmer that we all know and (at least some of us, but not me) hate. He is handsome, extremely brave, dosen't even have an "H" on his head, and is appealing to women. This makes the nerdy H-branded Rimmer very annoyed, especially when his opposite becomes Lister's good friend. After a while, though, nerdy Rimmer annoys the heck out of the popular hero-Rimmer, who leaves at the end. Very funny. Shows that older shows can have good technology too, by having two of the same actor in the same room, while the ships still visibly look like little models. But still, this is really cool, so watch it.

This is one of the best videos in the series in my opinion, the episode White hole is so funny, I was laughing myself nearly to death at some of the jokes, especially the toaster which provides a very good comedy sparring partner for lister. Lister drives Rimmer nuts and the toaster drives lister nuts. Its one of the best pieces of script writing that I have seen as the character is completely obsessed with toasted products and no matter what is said to him he always asks them if they want toast in some shape or form. The idea of increasing holly's intelligence at the cost of her operational runtime is also a great sequence as even though she has an IQ of 12000, the toaster still asks her if she wants some toast, and then he get shirty when she accuses him of being a one dimensional bread-obsessed toasting appliance when quite plainly he is. I especially liked the planet pool scene as lister is drinking constantly and pulls off the most audacious shot ever to close the white hole. As this means that the guys exist in a redundant timeline it gives kryten the opportunity to do something that we dont see very often ad that is give Rimmer a complete insulting, which is hilarious as the look on Rimmers face is one of complete shock at krytens actions, and it provides one of the best comedy moments in the show. Dimension jump is a close runner for the best ever episode as it shows what Rimmer could've been like and we get the opportunity to both hate and loathe Rimmer in the same episode. I asked Chris Barrie about this at the recent red dwarf convention and he said that he really enjoyed playing Ace Rimmer after so long playing the sad, snivelling weasel of a man called Arnold Rimmer for so long. It is also interesting that Chris said that Rimmer had been the spine of his career when Rimmer himself has no spine. The interaction between the two characters is really comical and it is refreshing, as Chris seemed to be enjoying insulting himself. The end credit story is comical as it says that ace never manages to find another Rimmer as sad and warped as the one he met aboard red dwarf, and about his impossible search, it is a credit to Chris Barries acting skills. Meltdown offers another chance to see mr Barries acting skills as an army general as he goes practically obsessed with killing the opposition, and the way lister eats the light bee at the end and asks if anyone fancies a vindaloo. This is such an amusing episode as there are all historys main figures being involved in this war. The sequence with Ghandi having to do press-ups is comical and the phrase lister uses as all the worst people in history in one place, "Hitler, Mussolini, Caligula, al Capone" "oh my god theres James last" which is very funny. The episode in my opinion is one of the best ever made and it adds to two other amazing episodes to make one of the best videos in the whole series and it was well worth the cost of importing it just to own it and increase my collection of one of the greatest if not the greatest comedy show ever written.

Dimension Jump, in my opinion is the best ever red Dwarf episode,
I started watching a few years ago and I am now addicted to them, The classic scene from Dimension jump is when rimmer sets a trap for his much more dashing counterpart, 'Ace' with a turkey on a string and a skutter holding the other end and the trap didn't work. My advice to anyone who hasn't seen this episode is see it NOW!!

Have to agree with the others: here Red Dwarf IV is definitely the strongest on storylines, character development and dialogue and very definitely the funniest out of all 8 series...
"Meltdown" is definitely, in my opinion, the best episode here although they're all classics.
I also agree with Elizabeth who says "Meltdown" is the episode all newcomers should watch... Funny saying that - because it's the first episode I decided to show my girlfriend and she loved it! :) Elvis is absolutely hilarious as one of Rimmer's soldiers - especially the bit where he sings during the training drill with the other "soldiers"... I'm laughing now just thinking about it!

I love all of the fourth series but I say this one tape in particular is worth getting for "Meltdown" alone... Seriously!
Anyone who loves comedy should check it out...
(Another recommended/favourite episode is "Backwards" from Series 3.)

I've often thought the fourth season of Red Dwarf was the most solid of all eight. Each episode is extremely strong in originality, plot and humor. Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten have reached the peak of character development. While my all-time favorite Red Dwarf episodes may not fall in the realm of the fourth series, I consider the fourth series to be flawless.

White Hole is a fun episode dealing with the flexibility and inconsistencies of time. It focuses mainly around Holly; this is the one episode where Hattie Hayridge lives up to her role as Norman Lovett's replacement. It's nice to see her shed the rather irritating computer senility for a while.

Dimension Jump is a Red Dwarf classic. This episode is best known for the introduction of Ace Rimmer, an alternate version of Rimmer and his opposite in every way. The philosophical implications of the infinite alternate dimensions are staggering. Ace's tag line is pricless, "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast."

Meltdown is the Red Dwarf episode I play for people who are unfamiliar with the show as a prime example of its brilliance. Meltdown is hilarious. The Dwarfers travel to a world where animatronic wax figures of famous historical persons are fighting the ultimate battle between good and evil. The highlight: Rimmer attempts to mold Ghandi into a lean, mean killing machine.

This tape is definitely a must-have for any Red Dwarf fan. It is also highly recommended to anyone thinking of becoming a Red Dwarf fan.